Ellie Smith
POSC 344.03
Dr. Faegri
September 23, 2014
Events Precipitating World War Two The subject of war has always been a touchy one. War, and all of its unpleasant components- death, fighting, and destruction- are never suitable for an agreeable discussion. Acts of war are invariably followed by suffering, which is exactly what Europe was doing in 1918 and the following years. The burden of World War I was so oppressive that it left Europe, in its entirety, in ruins. The countless efforts to ease the strain generated by the war had ultimately failed, sending Europe into a perpetual state of angst. The downfall of post World War I Europe gave way for World War II- a disaster that changed the global spectrum with enough significance …show more content…
After the first war, nations like Great Britain exercised measures to avoid the possibility of a similar situation ever reoccurring. The strategy of appeasement emerged from the war-traumatized nations of Britain and France, who recognized the expansionist trends of Hitler after he was elected in 1933. Neville Chamberlain, prime minister of England during the time, used the appeasement policy to avoid going to war with Germany. Britain, still recovering from the calamity of World War I, could not afford to go to war once again. However, an alliance between Britain and Germany was “never to be, as even Neville Chamberlain described Nazi Germany as the bully of Europe” (Neville 2005, 1). The motives behind appeasement seemed reasonable at first, as Germany complied with Britain’s requests and Hitler signed agreements with Chamberlain. Ultimately, appeasement failed to stop Hitler, as World War II broke out shortly after his invasion of Poland. Neville Chamberlain’s fatal flaw was his inability to realize that Hitler was far too compelled to be stopped by a strategy as fragile as appeasement. It can be generally agreed upon that a more militant approach should have been authorized shortly after Hitler’s election. After all, the “military in Britain backed Chamberlain and appeasement to the hilt as the only sound approach to weathering the storm” (Levy 2006, 2). Appeasement may have seemed like an appropriate strategy to the struggling nation of Great Britain, but today the policy is viewed in a more pejorative demeanor. Chamberlain’s motives can be understood, but he was responsible for administrating a major cause of World War